Monthly Archives: June 2011

News Flash

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Elephant in the St. Louis Zoo

Image via Wikipedia

An Elephant woke one morning to see a convoy of trucks passing by.  His tiny brain got an idea.  With smiling eyes, he lumbered over to one of the trucks.  His deft trunk reached into the truck and plucked the driver out of his seat.  Then, to the double amazement of the driver, the elephant began to try to get into the driver’s seat.

This is to all men, women and children.  You can imagine yourself as anything you want.  But the nature of our condition determines who we are.  You can call yourself a Pilot.  But unless you actually can and do fly a plane, you’re just fooling yourself.  You can imagine you’re a Chicken, if you wish.  But unless you’re really that small, feathered, beaked, and stupid, you’re still a human.

You can call yourself a Christian.  But unless the Lord causes you to be one, you’re just making noise with your lips.

“Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.” (Psalms 127:1)

“11For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  12Now if any man builds on the foundation with
gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13each man’s work will become evident; for the day  will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself  will test the quality of each man’s work. 14If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” (1 Corinthians)

“Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spiritgives birth to spirit.” (John 3: 6)

Go ahead.  Go to church.  And, as is your custom, continue in sin when you leave that place.  You think the sign you hang over your head causes you to be something you’re not?  Remember the Elephant and the Chicken, and the Pilot.  God is deadly serious about His Holy demands for mankind.  Only the wise will continually reach up to Him for that transformation He demands.  No man will find himself justified by his own desire.  Justification and eternal life are from the hand of the Lord.  Open your hard heart.  Drop your pride of life.  Listen to what the Lord has said.  The verdict on all men has already been rendered.  There is no life other than that which the Spirit of God builds in man.  And there will not be one shred of man’s accomplishments which will enter Heaven.  Unless the Lord has accomplished it in you and through you, you have accomplished nothing.  Pride of man is an ememy of God.  The name you give yourself is less than nothing in the eyes of God.

By His Grace.

To Ride the Dark Ride.

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We face the man of darkness.
He stands before the door.
“Through this place you will enter.
Your dress of flesh: no more.”

“I don’t want to enter”, the beg is clearly made.
“I want what I dare to want”.
“Regardless”, speaks he, “You will enter here.”
We are forced to receive his black taunt.

So we go through that forbidden place.
And since we must ride the dark ride.
What shall we do for preparation’s great sake?
For from God’s Great Law we can’t hide.

Open the box, then, and let me peak in.
I’m sure that the contents astounds.
But better received is the thrust of my shame
While I’m dirt and to flesh I am bound.

By His Grace.

Righteous Lame.

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broken_foot_2

Image by DaveCube via Flickr

You walk through life and ponder your fate.

By the things that are now in your hand.

And you look round at “yours”, boasting proud of your name.

But have you looked to Heaven’s True land?

“Religion is mine!”  You proclaim with great pomp.

And you boast of your future great fame.

We are sin from the start, and will not mount the stars

Without eating dirt, whence we came.

Consider the Lord and His wonderous fame.

Look long into His Glorious Name!

We are dust from the first.  He is God, so proclaimed.

Render your self “Righteous Lame”.

 

By His Grace.

Walls Too High

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The High Wall of Jid Ali

How many times have we reached a “wall too high”?
Then found ourselves, without explanation, “on the other side”.

And how many times, of those unexplainable moments,
Do we remember how high that wall was?

A plain stretches out before us, after a place we can’t remember.
The grass of opportunity now waving in the breeze.

We’re free to reconsider what plainly lies before us.
And we’re headed to the next “wall too high.

By His Grace.

Response to Hopelessness

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Dark Snow in the Rockies

Image by dj @ oxherder arts via Flickr

I sat beside a river of blood.

There! Look at that!

That’s who I was.

Fair? What’s fair?

There’s nothing left to do.

Whisper filtered through the trees,

“I care about you”.

Too tired to move, my ears searched around.

While dimming eyes stared at the ground.

Touch on my shoulder.

Who could this be?

That even one creature could care about me?

His Name is Jesus; who’s touch I now feel.

This stream before me was all I held as real.

“I have more for you to enter in.”

His heart was heard to say.

“Your life will not be taken.

I have use for you this day”.

He made me as He wanted.

And did not discuss His plans.

And now I walk undaunted.

This dark place is His land!

“Come, I’ll show you what to do”.

“Behold. I make all things new”.

“No man has seen the plans I have for you”.

“Today, you’re mine!

For I have purchased you”.

By His Grace.

Has the Lord Been Here?

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Entrance to the cave

Image via Wikipedia

Every night my tent is pitched at the place my feet arrived.  And I settle down to rest from the noise.  The body seeks that certain death from activity.  And this rest is simply added to the history of many before.  I hope to dream something of interest; not just vague weird shapes.  The night has come.

Every morning I wake to check my camp.  “Has the Lord been here?”  He has come in nights past and left a blessing to that rest.  But none is found this morning.  Yet I take no note of sorrow or disappointment.  For another day has dawned.

The walk is like the masses are camped along a ridge.  And the shape of what lies before us lies vague but daunting beckoning.  “I bid you walk!”  The future thunders with a voice all men hear, “You will walk toward me!”  And we are forced to obey.

I will choose the place my feet will step.  I’m looking for that certain place.  In each day’s journey the Lord has placed a through way.  It might be a bridge, so narrow and spindly that only one may pass at a time.  It might be a hill so high and rugged that it will require every skill I possess.  It might be a dark cave, with only the dim glow of His presence shining from the deep bowels.  It might be a crumbling wall, impenetrable and tall.  Such walls are crumbling with time.  And only those who contain the Spirit of God will see the decay.

Some days are filled with “wait”.  Some are teaming with activity.  Some days are so threatening as to cause us to desire death.  And some days are filled with the blazing heat of God’s presence.  But each day is of its own character.  And the sleep before did not perceive the One who created what we now encounter.

He is God!  He IS!  Forever His will is to be accomplished, regardless man’s willingness to perceive or embrace it.  Look at your way, you people in the land of death.  Look at how your day dawns.  Consider your end and look around you with eyes of understanding.  One more night has escaped your grasp. Though you wished to hold it to your chest, it has evaporated none the less.  Do you really think the day belongs to you?  It will belong to God!  As the night has gone, so will the day.

Eternity is His.  Goodness is His.  Righteous belongs to God alone!  Hatred, ignorance, blindness, doubt, stumbling, and striving are ours.  Yet He is More!  Rise up and look with wisdom at the place you find your soul.  Today is all you have.  And even that is not fully yours.  For our hearts might fail this very day.

 

By His Grace.